Ford Motor Co., Chrysler and General Motors all are facing huge losses, and they’re down sizing their work forces, which will create new financial challenges for their workers, local banks and credit unions and the community leaders in the affected towns.

This is not a new problem, because auto workers have been seeing their way above average earnings leveled by globalization for years, but the sizes of the pending downsizings is huge. Ford alone could buy out some 30,000 of its North American workers. Those workers have almost no chance of finding new jobs that will pay as well as their auto manufacturing jobs do. Some will retire, some will take very low-paying jobs and some will move to markets where they can use their skills to make pretty good money.

The question is, how can banks and credit unions help their communities—mostly in Indiana and Ohio—replace their lost auto making jobs? Companies that supply materials and parts to the auto makers also face downsizing and the same problems.

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A lot is at stake, beginning with lost wages and extending to weak housing prices in an already shrinking housing market.

For a case study, look at the Peoria, IL, area, which suffered in the late 1980s and 1990s as Caterpillar drastically downsized local manufacturing and moved it to less expensive markets. Peoria has been ranked as one of the most affordable places to live for years, because housing prices have been depressed due to the lost of Cat’s jobs, and the community has been only moderately successful, I think, in replacing those jobs.

This means local independent community banks as well as the branch managers for regional and national banks will need to provide strong, creative leadership to help their communities not only survive but also thrive. It’s very hard to attract employers to highly-unionized communities because the employers fear unionization and local residents can’t imagine working for non-union shops that offer lower wages and benefits than they’ve been used to.

And an employer can’t say to a community, “We’ll move to your town if your workers promise not to unionize.” Nor can the local Chamber of Commerce promise, “If you move here, our people will work for the minimum wage and they won’t unionize.”

Yet, that’s what the employer wants to say, and it’s what local workers have to say to prospective emploiyers to get new employers to move to town. ESP doesn’t work too well in economic development.

So what might banks, credit unions, savings and loans and local business groups do?

1. Sponsor financial planning “Survive and thrive” seminars for customers prospects, workers and small businesses. Have credible, non promotional instructors lay out the options for the former auto workers and the small businesses that stand to suffer from losing their best-paid customers.

2. Sponsor seminars for people considering starting their own businesses and creating jobs for themselves. Bring in speakers on buying franchises, starting consulting businesses, using your skills in other industries, selling on e-Bay and Craig’s list, and searching for jobs in other markets.

3. Sponsor seminars on selling real estate in depressed markets with an emphasis on facing reality and making hard decisions to take what the market will give you rather than holding out for the best price until you have to sell 30% to 40% below what you can get today.

4. Sponsor meetings and support groups for workers and local businesses affected by the down sizing.

5. Support local economic development efforts to bring new employiers to town and help existing ones surivive and grow.

What would happen if the president of an independent community bank began writing bank ads that suggested ways that displace workers and small businesses could deal with the loss of their high-paying jobs and well-paid customers? What if the bank president wrote a blog and sponsored a message board? And what would happen if the bank president was frank with the workers?

What if the bank president said, “You may have to move, you may have to leave town and find a job with an auto dealer, you may have to apply your skills to another trade in another community or state, you can be bitter or you can make the most of the opportunity to begin a new career?” In effect, the bank president would be saying, “‘We want you to stay here, but we know that not everybody will be able to, and we want to help all of our long-time, loyal customers get back on your feet as soon as you can, even if that means we have to watch you leave town and we lose your business.”

What would this do for the bank? It would build credibility with customers and prospects who weren’t losing their jobs. It would show that the bank cared about its customers, which is always important to a financial institution. And if the bank ads invited customers to come in and talk about their situations, the bank would be able to help some people figure out how to create new jobs and businesses and stay in town and with the bank.”

It will be interesting to see how various communities and their financial institutions react to the downsizing that the global auto markets are forcing on Detroit.